A sound scene in this document is used to refer to the arrangement of sound sources in a three-dimensional space. When a sound source changes position, the sound scene changes. When the sound source changes its audio properties such as its audio output, then the sound scene changes.
A sound scene may be defined in relation to recording sounds (a recorded sound scene) and in relation to rendering sounds (a rendered sound scene).
Some current technology focuses on accurately reproducing a recorded sound scene as a rendered sound scene at a distance in time and space from the recorded sound scene. The recorded sound scene is encoded for storage and/or transmission.
A sound object within a sound scene may be a source sound object that represents a sound source within the sound scene or may be a recorded sound object which represents sounds recorded at a particular microphone. In this document, reference to a sound object refers to both a recorded sound object and a source sound object. However, in some examples, the sound object(s) may be only source sound objects and in other examples the sound object(s) may be only recorded sound objects.
By using audio processing it may be possible, in some circumstances, to convert a recorded sound object into a source sound object and/or to convert a source sound object into a recorded sound object.
It may be desirable in some circumstances to record a sound scene using multiple microphones. Some microphones, such as Lavalier microphones, or other portable microphones, may be attached to or may follow a sound source in the sound scene. Other microphones may be static in the sound scene.
The combination of outputs from the various microphones defines a recorded sound scene. However, it may not always be desirable to render the sound scene exactly as it has been recorded. It is therefore desirable, in some circumstances, to enable a user, for example a sound engineer, to control audio rendering by adapting the recorded sound scene to produce an alternative rendered sound scene.